Power’s fine finish at John Deere Classic

Seamus Power after his win on the Web.com Tour last season. The West Waterford golfer needs a good finish to the season if he is to retain his PGA Tour card.

From barely making the cut to carding the best weekend rounds of his career, Seamus Power proved in no uncertain terms that he is more than up to the challenges of the PGA Tour with a fine finish at the John Deere Classic in Illinois last Sunday.
The West Waterford golfer carded closing rounds of 66 and 67 (nine under par over the weekend) to move from having just made the cut to a share of 25th place.
On Friday evening the cut hovered between two and three under par. Having carded two opening rounds of 70 for a two under par half-way total, Power knew he would be on his way home if the cut stayed at three under par.
However thanks to a fortuitous bogey on the 18th late in the afternoon on Friday from Michael Kim, the cut moved back to two under par and Power made it through to the weekend.
Seamus Power has made a relatively decent start on tour, although he has yet to secure his card for next year. His performance over the weekend though will surely add to his confidence ahead of the last few tournaments before the FedEx play-offs begin.
Power has been in contention at the half-way stage of tournaments this season but has, by his own high standards, performed poorly over the weekend.
Last weekend in Illinois he made the most of barely making the cut by carding an excellent third round score of five under par 66.
Birdies on the first, fifth and ninth were followed by a brilliant eagle on the par 4 14th where a drive of 310yds landed on the green, just 13 ft 2 inches to the whole. Power capitalised on the excellent drive by sinking the putt for eagle.
What was especially pleasing about the third round was that there were no bogeys.
An outward nine of 35 after two birdies and two bogeys in Sunday’s fourth round still left the West Waterford golfer somewhat down the field but he turned on the style on the back nine with birdies on the 10th, 11th, 14th, and 17th to card a four under par round of 67 and a share of 25th place.
Power has moved to 142nd on the FedEx points list but would need to move inside the top 125 to play the hugely lucrative final four tournaments of the season.
While the World’s top-ranked players now turn their attention to the British Open, the third Major of the year which begins at Royal Birkdale on Thursday, Seamus Power will tee it up at the Barbasol Championship in Alabama where a repeat of last weekend’s form could see the West Waterford golfer in contention.